The medical device industry produces a variety of implantable medical device systems that provide electrical stimulation therapy to patients suffering from cardiac and/or neurological disorders. Examples of these implantable systems include those providing cardiac pacing and/or defibrillation, and those providing neuromodulation. Electrical stimulation is typically delivered through one or more electrodes of a stimulation lead, implanted in intimate contact with tissue at specific sites, for example, in contact with myocardial, spinal cord, peripheral nerve, or brain tissue; the one or more electrodes are coupled to a stimulation source, or device, which is implanted in a subcutaneous pocket, by corresponding isolated conductors that extend, within an elongate insulative lead body, from the device, in the pocket, to the electrodes, at the stimulation site. The conductors are typically coupled to the device via a connector terminal, which is designed for reversible connection within a connector port of the device and that extends proximally from a proximal end of the elongate lead body.
Because the subcutaneous pocket for the device implant is typically somewhat remote from the stimulation site, elongate insulative lead bodies are designed to have a sufficient length, flexibility and durability to be routed through and/or around anatomical structures, between the pocket and the stimulation site, and to protect and isolate the conductors and electrodes of the lead from one another and from the implant environment. In some cases another lead, including an additional set of conductors, an associated lead body, a connector port, and a connector terminal, is included in the system, either to extend a length of the stimulation lead, or to convert the connector of the stimulation lead to another type of connector, which is compatible with a particular type of device connector port.
Lead connector terminals are typically coupled to device connector ports, as well as to connector ports of other leads, by grasping the associated lead body in proximity to the connector terminal and inserting the connector terminal into the port.